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Waiheke locals are angry the Auckland Council has fast-tracked a plan to build at marina around the ferry terminal at Matiatia.
Resident and former MP Sandra Lee says Waiheke Marinas Limited wants to turn the island into a boat parking lot for Auckland fat cats.
More than 800 locals wrote submissions opposing the plan, but they won’t be heard because Auckland Council’s planning committee sent the application straight to the Environment Court.
Mrs Lee says when the council dug up an urupā to build a footpath around the bay some years ago, it had to back down after a long fight by tangata whenua and residents.
"Yet again we’re being forced by council into a reactive mode. It’s a waahi tapu for our people, it’s a place where penguins, orca, stingray and all manner of wildlife come to rest in this very precious bay, and the fact that the Auckland Council and Len Brown has allowed this to be fast-tracked, to by-pass a democratic hearing, and send it straight to courts where our people have to lawyer up, is totally unjust," she says.
Mrs Lee says the rednecks who were up in arms during the foreshore and seabed debate about the prospect of Māori owning coastal space seem to be silent now it’s a private company that is being handed up public asset.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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